Fifty studies were reviewed that surveyed opinions
on teaching origins in public schools. The vast majority found about
90% of the public desired that both creation and evolution or creation
only be taught in the public schools. About 90% of Americans consider
themselves creationists of some form, and about half believe that God
created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years. In
America, about 15% of high school teachers teach both evolution and
creation, and close to 20% of high school science teachers and about
10,000 scientists (including more than 4,000 life scientists) reject both
macroevolution and theistic evolution. Although the vast majority of
Americans desire both creation and evolution taught in school, the
evolutionary naturalism worldview dominates, revealing a major disparity
between the population and the ruling élite.

Introduction

umans have, since their beginning, sought to understand how life began.
Because the subject of origins deals with events that happened in the past,
much speculation is involved, and the question of origins is an emotional
issue intimately connected with personal belief structure. As evolution
gained acceptance among scientists in the late 1800s, opposition to teaching
it in public schools surfaced, and evolution is still not universally taught
in American public schools.[1]
Relatively few schools taught evolution, and many colleges did not include
the subject in their curriculum, until after the 1930s.[2] Currently, evolutionary naturalism is the most
widely taught view of origins in the West, and for the past half-century,
evolutionists have strenuously opposed teaching competing theories of
origins in public schools.

Creation-Evolution Surveys showMost Americans are Creationists

Scores of polls have now been completed by various organizations to
assess both the public’s opinions regarding creation and evolution and
the advisability of teaching both views in the public schools. The first
recent national scientific public opinion poll on teaching origins was
completed in 1972 by George Gallup, a respected polling corporation with
years of experience perfecting its methods. The poll asked a representative
sample of 1,518 adults if they agreed with the statement: ‘God
created Adam and Eve, which was the start of human life.’
Presumably, this question would separate those who conclude Adam and Eve
were distinct creations from those who believe that humans evolved from a
‘lower’ life form by natural selection acting on mutations.

Of the total sample, 91% were creationists of some form, and
44% (25% of them college graduates) agreed with the statement
that ‘God created man pretty much in his present form ... within the
past 10,000 years.’[3]
Fully 81% of those who labelled themselves Evangelicals believed that
humans descended from Adam and Eve, compared with 58% of the
non-Evangelical Protestants (Table 1, below). The lowest percent of
agreement was among Roman Catholics (only 47% agreed). Gallup found
that close to 50% of the population rejected both atheistic and
theistic evolution, at least of humans.

Table 1. Percent who agreed with:
‘God created Adam and Eve, which was the start of human
life’ grouped by age, education and religion.

Age

38%1829

51%3049

58%50 & Older

Education

33%College

55%High School

66%Grade School

Religion

50%General Public

81%Evangelical

47%Roman Catholic

58%Protestant

Gallup also found that agreement with creationism was inversely related
to both education and agethe more educated and the younger
the respondent, the less likely they were to believe that God created
the first humans. The likely reason is that younger persons are better
educated and more influenced by new secular ideas in the society around
them. Only 33% of college graduates agreed with the creation
worldview compared with 66% of grade school graduates. In a 1993
follow-up, Gallup found 82% believe in some form of creationism, a
drop of 10%, and fully 47% believe God created man pretty much in his
present form within the past 10,000 years.[4] A similar 1986 University of Texas study found
that fully 60% of students (N = 1,000) believe that ‘Adam and
Eve were created by God as the first two people.’[5]

Secular Humanists’ Poll findsMost Americans are Creationists

A more focused poll was completed by Research Associates under the
direction of Professor Gerald Goldhabar of the State University of New York
in Buffalo. Commissioned by the atheistic organization Council for
Secular Humanism, the poll found 90.7% of Americans identified
with a specific religion. A large majority (83.8%) was either
Protestant (55.2%) or Catholic (28.6%). The sampling frame
consisted of 1,512 randomly selected U.S. households, and the sampling error
was ± 2.3% at the 95% confidence level.[6] Education was found to be influential
only at the extremes, i.e., those with a high school education or less were
more likely to believe in ‘a personal God who can answer
prayer’ (93.9%), but of respondents with a graduate or
professional degree, only 80.2% agreed. Fully 91.2% of all
people expressed a belief in God, and 6.1% claim they once did
not believe in God but do so now.

This humanist survey that was designed to assess evolution beliefs found
that the creationist position that rejects evolution is the most
dominant position on origins in America. Fully 46.4% disagreed with
the statement that ‘evolution is the best possible explanation of
human existence.’ Education was negatively related to belief in
creationismfully 69.4% of those with high school
education or less did not believe that evolution was the best possible
explanation for life, as did 46% of those with graduate or
professional degrees. The majority of all persons sampled (52.7%)
disagreed with the theistic evolution world view, and 19.1% of all
people surveyed stated they believed that God created the cosmos from 5 to
10 thousand years ago (13.2% of professionals agreed with this
position). Also, 44.5% with a high school education or less believe
the Bible is the ‘Word of God’ and fully 63.3% of the
college graduates believe the Bible is ‘the inspired word of
God,’ but only 14.8% who have graduate or professional
degrees agreed with this statement.

The Creation Center Surveys

In 1976 the ICR Midwest Center completed a ‘random phone
survey’ in five states and asked which view of origins they preferred
taught in public schools.[7] The same group also contacted a
representative sample in two California school districts and found 89%
(N = 1,346) in Del Norte and 84% (N = 92,000) in Cupertino preferred
that both creation and evolution be taught in the public schools. A
second ICR Midwest Center sample of 989 persons is broken down in Table 2
(above), survey II.

In summary, the surveys completed consistently show that most Americans
support the teaching of Creation in the public schools and only a minority
accepts Darwinism. Most peopleup to
90%hold some form of creationism.

Creation Surveys of College Students and Creationism

One longitudinal study indicates that acceptance of creation may be
growing among some college students. A survey of Mormon students at Brigham
Young University (BYU) found that in 1935 36% (N = 1159) of the
students agreed with the statement ‘Man’s creation did not
involve biological evolution,’ compared with 81% (N = 1056)
in 1973.[8] In 1935
5% compared with 27% in 1973 agreed with the statement,
‘The world’s creation did not take millions of years.’
Students also claimed they became more conservative on religion as
they progressed through BYU. Conversely, Hunsberger found little change in
religiousness as students progressed through a secular college.[9] The type and religious
orientation of the college is of major importance in how students develop
religiously.

Spencer found that 34% of his sample of 149 Wichita State
University students labelled themselves creationists, 61% theistic
evolutionists, and only 3% atheistic evolutionists.[10] Fully 47%
believed that the Genesis account of Noah, the Ark, and the Great flood is
true, and 72% believed that the Biblical account of Adam and Eve is
true (50% listed it as certainlytrue and 22% as
probablytrue). Spencer also found much inconsistency in the
students’ answers, indicating many students have not studied the topic
or thought about it extensively. In another survey Fuerst administered a
questionnaire to 2,387 students in ten different science courses at Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio. He concluded that Biology
students:

‘showed a surprisingly low level of
acceptance for the theory of evolution, and by an 80% to 20%
rate favoured the concept of equal time for competing theories of
origins.’[11]

Another survey of nearly 2,400 science students at Ohio State University
found 47% did not believe Darwin’s theory and fully 80%
felt that if Darwin’s theory of evolution is taught in public schools,
other views including special creation should also be taught.[12] Also, 58% did
not believe that teaching creationism in school amounted to teaching
religion, and 41% concluded that Darwinism did not have a valid
scientific foundation.

These surveys are a few of those completed, all which find that a large
percent of college students also hold to the some form of creationism.[13],[14],[15]

Surveys of Teachers and Scientists

It is usually assumed that although the public favours teaching both
theories, teachers favour teaching only evolution. Eve and Harold concluded
that surveys consistently indicate that ‘about
one-fifth to one-third of science teachers actually teach creationism in
their classes ... .’[16] Zimmerman found that, although 19.1% of
Ohio science teachers did not believe in evolution, fully 87.7%
taught it in their biology classes.[17] This means almost 20% of Ohio science
teachers were creationists but only 15.25% taught creationism. A
replication of this study by Tatina found evolution was a standard topic in
72.7% of high school biology courses, creation in 16.3%, and
both evolution and creation were frequently part of introductory biology
classes.[18]

Surveys of scientists found 5% believe that ‘humans were
created in their current form less than 10,000 years ago.’[19],[20] This means 10,000 of
the 213,000 scientists working in academic and basic research were
creationists, including 4,200 life scientists. A 1988 survey by
Industrial Chemistry magazine found of 519 respondents, 23%
rejected the belief that humans evolved from simple chemical elements.
Consequently, according to this survey almost 50,000 scientists are old or
young-age creationists.

A survey by Bland of degreed biology professors, many with years of
teaching experience in accredited Bible colleges, found 81% (N = 38)
taught both creation and evolution and only 17% (N = 8) taught
evolution alone.[21] Of this
sample, 44% (N = 21) taught theistic evolution, 49% (N = 23) did
not, 74% (N = 35) used creation as an integrating theme in science,
and only 24% (N = 11) used evolution as an integrating theme.

In another survey, Harold and Eve found that fully 25% of biology
teachers believed that God created humans in their present form about 10,000
years ago.[22] They
also concluded that students in eastern schools were most likely to
accept evolution, and those in southern schools least likely to
accept the theory (Table 3).

Table 3. The question: ‘God
created humanity pretty much in its present form in the last 10,000 years or
so.’ (N = 90).

Agree (%)

Disagree (%)

Not sure (%)

Texas Students

28

42

31

California Students

19

59

23

Connecticut Students

19

56

25

High School Biology Teachers

25

64

11

Note: Because of rounding off, not all percentages
add up to exactly 100%.

Troost found 54% (173 out of 320) of Indiana secondary school
biology teachers believed evolution was theory, not fact, and 43%
(N=163) that evolution should be presented in public schools as one of
several alternative theories of origins.[23] Troost found fully 73% of the
teachers were creationists of some sort (many were theistic evolutionists),
and 72% rated themselves as ‘very religious’. The
survey also found that, contrary to Troost’s expectations, the
religious teachers put as much emphasis on evolution as their non-religious
colleagues.

In a survey of 125 teachers (56 Christian school teachers and 69 public
school teachers in 31 states), Ramsey found that 93% of Christian
school teachers and 29% of public teachers used the two-model
approach; 92% of Christian school teachers and 18% of public
teachers believe the Bible creation account over evolution; 98% of
Christian school teachers and 18% public teachers believe humans were
specially created; and 74% of Christian school teachers compared with
17% of public teachers believe evolution is atheistic.[24]

About Half of all Teachers Support Teaching Creationism

The major concern of teachers is not if creation is taught, but
how it is taught. One survey involving 23 items mailed in 1988 to
each of the 200 high schools in South Dakota found that creationism was
presented in a favourable light in 9.5% of the biology courses, and
all but one of the teachers who presented it favourably believe that
creationism has a scientific basis.[25] While 80.6% of the teachers
indicated that textbooks covered evolution satisfactorily, 51.4%
stated they were dissatisfied with the textbook coverage of creationism.
Over half (59.6%) felt that teaching creationism in the classroom did
not mean teaching religion because creationism could be taught from a
non-sectarian standpoint. In a measure of the teacher’s knowledge
about evolution, Tatina found only 7.1% chose what the question’s
author believed was the correct evolution answer. Furthermore he found
that,

‘teachers who teach only evolution, as well
as those who include a unit on creationism, were all equally likely to
answer this question correctly as those who did not teach a unit on
evolution.’[26]

Fully 34.3% of the teachers felt that creationism was
scientifically valid, and ironically, attitudes on the validity of evolution
were ‘independent of whether evolution or
creationism is taught.’

Table 4. Percent of teachers who believe
that creation should be taught in public schools.

A 1994 survey by Overman and Deckard of a large group of science teachers
randomly selected from the National Association of Science Teachers
membership found that, of 313 usable surveys, fully 39% disagreed with
the statement ‘evolution is a scientific fact’ and 5%
agreed that the Genesis account about Adam, Noah and the Tower of Babel are
historically true.[27] A
total of 79% agreed that an eternal creator supernaturally made the
physical universe, and fully 43% reject macroevolution.

Blank and Andersen surveyed 218 persons in a teacher training program in
a large Midwestern university (see Table 5 below).[28] Specifically, four classes (one secondary
science methods and four elementary science methods classes) were polled
during the 19951996 academic year. The students surveyed were
all in pre-service training programs, and for brevity, are here
labelled only secondary and elementary teachers. Hodgson and Hodgson
surveyed a total of 1,372 students in 10 life science courses at Central
Michigan University.

In the Blank and Anderson survey, 21% of the secondary science
teachers and 57% of the elementary teachers stated they did not
believe Darwin’s theory of evolution was true. Hodgson and Hodgson
found 38% of students at Central Michigan University, and Fuerst found
33% of students at Ohio State University, did not accept Darwin’s
theory of evolution. Blank and Anderson found 88% of the elementary
and 60% of the secondary science teachers felt that non-Darwin views
should be given equal time in class. In the Ohio State University sample,
80% felt other views besides Darwin’s should be given equal time
in the classroom, and 81% of the Central Michigan University sample
held this position. Further 71% of the elementary teachers and
47% of the secondary science teachers did not view creationism
as religion. Fully 58% of the Ohio State University sample and
61% of the Central Michigan University sample did not view creationism
as religion. In addition, 64% of the elementary and 45% the
secondary science teachers felt that the current textbooks should be changed
so that they also present creationism. This compares with 62% of the
Ohio State University sample and 60% of the Central Michigan
University sample.[29],[30]

Table 5. Summary of three studies into
beliefs and academic experience of teachers in training. Data given
as %.

Blank and Anderson argued that many adults accept creationism partly
because a large number of teachers accept this worldview. The authors then
discussed the ethics of teacher training programs that deliberately try to
change students’ beliefs by use of more intensive indoctrination
programs. This research shows that a surprisingly high percent of teachers
hold the creationist world view, and most surveys find about half believe
creationism should be taught in the public schools.

The Research Shows Most Americans are Creationists

Some of the terms used in these surveys (e.g. atheistic evolution,
theistic evolution, and theistic creation trichotomy) may not have been
clear to many respondents. Specifically, some respondents may not have
understood the difference between the creationist and theistic evolutionist
positions. Ideally, more than three categories should be used, including
acceptance of micro- (and macro-) evolution. This research raises the
important question: Why does so much opposition exist in the US courts and
among scientists to teaching both theories of origins when, according to all
extant surveys, the majority of not only parents but also often teachers are
in favour of the two-model approach? Also, if most parents and teachers
support this approach, why does a single model dominate in public
schools?

My surveys found that the majority of students were exposed only to
evolutionary naturalism in their biology classes, and when creationism was
mentioned it was often ridiculed. Evolution dominates partly because it is
the only position discussed in most textbooks. The reason often given is
the belief that separation of Church and State requires a one-sided
presentation of evolution, yet fully 72% of the 578 lawyers that
returned a survey believed the First Amendment did not prohibit the
teaching creationism in US public schools.[31] In the rare instances where creation is
mentioned, it is usually to argue against it. A two-model position is much
more effective from both an educational and pedagogical standpoint because
teaching by contrasts helps to understanding the source of knowledge and
aids in comprehending information.[32]

The findings of this study support the contention that young people are
less religious than the older generation partly because younger people spend
more time in school, and education adversely influences both religious
values and creation beliefs. This relationship would be expected
considering the fact that textbooks, lectures and the secular school social
environment are all often biased against theism and religious values.[33] Secular schools are
consequently often successful in demolishing or reducing the strength of
students’ theistic beliefs. Some argue that intelligence and education
cause one to reject creationist beliefs because these factors help one to
learn the ‘truth’ about these topics, a questionable
conclusion because schools are admittedly indoctrination institutions. This
one-sided indoctrination violates the Supreme Court rulings that argue that
the schools must not proselytize for religion, but also must not be
antagonistic against theism and religious beliefs. The problem was
summarized by Reapsome:

‘A college education doesn’t do
much for one’s religious faith; in fact, Americans with only a grade
school education are more consistently religious in belief and practice than
those who have been to college. Those who have completed high school fall
somewhere in between. This fact places the churches in a critical bind.
For many years, Christians were taunted with charges of ignorance and
obscurantism. Faith was said to be for the ignorant and pastors were
accused of ducking tough intellectual questions. Church kids by the
thousands went off to a college and promptly lost whatever faith they had
... The country’s religion in the future, perhaps even more than in the
past, will be determined to a significant extent by what happens in its
colleges and universities.’[34]

This problem is even true of many denominational colleges, most which are
now almost totally secularized. In one study of a Methodist college, Hites
found acceptance of religious values declined as students progressed
through college.[35]
Unfortunately, a great deal of intolerance exists on this emotional issue
which is bound up with a person’s basic beliefs about life’s
purpose and questions of right and wrong. Ideally, each view should be
accurately and appropriately presented, and other theories such as
exobiology theory should at least be discussed. Investigations on
indoctrination by secular universities is warranted, because it is
inconsistent for the public to be forced to support an institution which
openly proselytizes for a belief structure that contravenes their most
cherished values. If the secular schools are to be truly neutral, efforts
to remove this anti-religious bias should be expended.

Jerry Bergman has seven degrees, including
in biology, psychology, and evaluation and research, from Wayne State
University, in Detroit, Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and Medical
College of Ohio in Toledo. He has taught at Bowling Green State University,
the University of Toledo, Medical College of Ohio and at other colleges and
universities. He currently teaches biology, microbiology, biochemistry, and
human anatomy at the college level and is a research associate involved in
research in the area of cancer genetics. He has published widely in both
popular and scientific journals.[RETURN TO TOP]

[30] Hodgson, R. and Hodgson, S.P., A survey on
university students understanding of the place of evolutionary biology in
the creation/evolution controversy, Creation-Evolution
34(1):2937, 1994. [RETURN TO TEXT]

[40] Buckner, E., Professional and Political
Socialization: High School Science Teacher Attitudes on Curriculum
Decisions, in the Context of the ‘Scientific’ Creationism
Campaign, Ph.D. dissertation, Georgia State University, Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Microfilms International, 1983. [RETURN TO TEXT]

[42] Ellis, W. Creationism in Kentucky: The response of
high school biology teachers, In: Science and Creationism, Ed. by
Hanson, R.W., Macmillan, New York, pp. 7291, 1986. [RETURN TO TEXT]

[43] Affannato, F., A Survey of Biology
Teachers’ Opinions about the Teaching of Evolutionary Theory and/or the
Creation Model in the United States in Public and Private Schools, Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Iowa, 1986. [RETURN TO TEXT]